A Selfie to Die For

13)Let the games begin

Chapter song: "Enjoy the silence" by Denmark and Winter
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The next day when Emily awoke, she was surprised to find text messages from Ian expressing concern for her well being.
He asked for her number last night as she waited for her mom to arrive home, and said he'd talk to her tomorrow, but it was still surprising he followed through with contacting her. Next followed a simple text from him asking if she'd told anyone else.
She hadn't.

The previous night Ian tried getting her to contact the police, but Emily couldn't bring herself to do it. She felt a strange amount of shame, as if what happened yesterday was almost her fault. She didn't blame herself for saying no to Declan and stopping something further than groping  taking place, but Emily partially placed the blame on herself  that she ignored all the tell-tale signs than Declan wasn't a good guy. It was obvious - the signs were all there, she just chose to ignore them.



To make matters worse, he left a gift on her front porch while waving what happened off as though it was no big deal.





Emily had to work to hide her wound last night before her mother came home. She looked awful. Her eyes had been red and puffy, her jaw was bruising, and her lip was looking ugly. She easily concealed the bruises with concealer and powder, and hit the busted lip by cleaning it up and hiding it with a brighter lipstick than she normally wore. Given her mom was exhausted after working a couple different shifts, Madison was oblivious anything was wrong.

Emily ignored the probably intelligent movement and kept silent. The worst was at least over. Now that she's finally seen Declan's true colors, she could properly distance herself from him.

That proved to be inaccurate as Emily shuffled around her room contemplating going to school. The familiar standard ring of her cell phone blared from her dresser, and soon Emily sickly saw it was Declan calling.
What was he playing at? Did he really expect her to just assume last night had been a simple argument? Emily grew fearful that's what he truly felt. Of course that's what he felt - why else would he have gifted her the stupid necklace. He truly assumed this was something she'd get over.




Emily allowed the call to go to unanswered. After a minute or so, a voicemail was left.
"I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to pick you up today darling, I'll see you later on today."

That made a cold shudder tremble down Emily's spine. The creep was actually going to pretend nothing was seriously wrong. Was that also Emily's fault? Should she have gone to the police like Ian said?
Biting her inner cheek, Emily contemplated what to do. Go to school or not go to school. Send a scathing text saying to leave her alone, or say nothing and hope he took her silence as a quiet way of saying to stay the heck away from her.
Against her wanting to hide underneath her covers and skip school, Emily silently came to the conclusion she wasn't going to let Declan scare her. She wasn't going to hide because of him.

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Emily waited until she saw Declan head into the school with his posse of friends before she even exited her truck. He looked so normal - so uncaring that he actually hit a girl yesterday. It upset Emily as she tried to not let her eyes water upon watching him.
It wasn't until she saw Vinessa hurrying across the parking lot that she started heading over to her. Ian Quin was right - she needed advice from someone over what to do. She needed to talk to Jake and Vee.




Emily couldn't tell her parents. Her shame was too strong. Plus, telling her folks what happened would mean she would have to admit she was pathetic enough to date a guy she met over the internet.
Emily was about to explain herself before Vee suddenly grabbed her by the forearm. "Let's go this way..." Vinessa coughed, half pulling half dragging Emily away. Vinessa's sky-high heels clicked furiously against the pavement as she led Emily away.




"What are you doing...?" Emily started to look around randomly, and that's when her heart sunk when she spotted what Vinessa was so obviously trying to hide her from.
Jake sat perched against his own truck while his hands roamed down a familiar blonde's back. His mouth was practically glued to Lauren's as they played a round a tonsil hockey.




"Oh" Emily said quietly, hiding her head low as she hurried with Vinessa inside the school. She couldn't be entirely certain, but Emily felt strongly Jake had known Emily had parked only a few spaces away from him.




"I take it you didn't see yesterday's FaceSpace display about Jakey and Lauren in-a-relationship?" Vee questioned bitterly, only releasing Emily's arm once they were in the safe confines of the school.
That news hit Emily like a ton of bricks.




"Relationship...?"
The word tasted bitter to Emily as she said it.





Vinessa rolled her mocha-colored eyes. Emily could tell this was specifically reserved for Jake alone.  "Friggen douche. He was so obviously jealous over you and Declan yesterday. Then the fight ya'll had? I'm betting that's the only reason he's dating miss priss."




Emily stared at her boots, trying very hard not to be upset over Jake and Lauren tongue wrestling. It was hard. Jake answered his phone yesterday only to immediately end the call. That moment last night was when she really could've used a friend in her corner.





"Girl, don't even sweat it - Declan's a major babe, and you got the better deal than Lauren..." she trailed off, frowning as Emily's green eyes suddenly watered. "Emily - what's wrong??"




"I have to tell you something."

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A half hour later, Emily and Vinessa neglected to go to class. They sat on the floor of the second-floor bathroom against the wall, not quite knowing what to say after Emily explained what happened. She didn't want to cry, but as soon as Vinessa started to cry for her Emily's own waterworks went off.
The two girls spent at least ten minutes sitting against the bathroom wall, trying to think of a solution to this problem.
It was Vinessa who finally spoke.
"You should've went to the cops last night."





"I can go now-"



"-No, you can't" Vee disagreed, shaking her midnight-dark head. "Who's going to believe you when you wait almost an entire day to report it? It'll look like you were just mad at him or something and wanted to get him into trouble for something he didn't do-"




"-But he did do it!"




"I know" Vinessa agreed in a hushed voice. "I believe you. I'm talking police. My uncle's a cop, so I hear stories about crap people did to get thrown in the slammer. Proving domestic assault stuff is hard. If someone doesn't immediately come forward, a case can get thrown out."





Emily sighed, gripping the sides of her hair. She had no idea what to do in this type of situation. "What do I do?? Declan's sent me three text messages since his phone call along with that stupid present he left on my porch."




"Well you can't go back to him" Vinessa shrugged. "That much is at least obvious. Girl, you need to drop-kick him to the curb and cut that poison out of your life."






Emily nodded. She was right. Emily began to rock back and forth on her knees as another text message pinged her phone.
Glancing at it, it was another message from Ian asking how she was.




"Now explain to me how Ian Quinn fits into this" Vinessa said, quirking a brow.



"What do you mean? He saw me walking and then stopped to pick me up." Emily noticed Vinessa was frowning heavily upon this explanation. "What?"





"His timing is just funny to me" Vee explained lightly.

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After both girls sat out of their entire individual classes, they came out of the bathroom upon the bell ringing.  Vinessa hugged Emily and made her promise that she would wait inside her last classroom for Vinessa to come from two rooms over to pick her up. She didn't want Emily walking alone while Declan was going to pretend that nothing bad had happened yesterday.
Emily was thankful to have a friend in Vinessa Shaw - it would've been easier for the young woman to disbelieve her.